Uzbekistan has signed a deal with a consortium of foreign banks to obtain loans worth a total of $2.54 billion to build a gas and chemicals complex on its Surgil field, state oil and gas company Uzbekneftegaz said.

Uzbekneftegaz said in a statement the signing ceremony had taken place in the Uzbek capital Tashkent on Saturday.

Representatives from 13 countries attended the second Asia Energy Security Summit 2012, which commenced on Wednesday in Colombo.

Participants include experts in the field and sub fields of energy of India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Uzbekistan.

Speakers at the summit included energy experts and academics, policy makers, government officials and industrial stakeholders from all sections of the Energy Domain.

Power and Energy Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka who was to deliver the inaugural address, didn’t attend the seminar due to some urgent engagements.

The second Asia Energy Security Summit 2012, a Track 2 diplomacy initiative, debating Asian geopolitics, energy and infrastructure security will begin in the Sri Lankan capital city Colombo today with the participation of attendees from 13 countries.

The two-day summit from February 29 - March 01 will be held at the Taj Samudra Hotel in Colombo.

India has the worst air pollution in the entire world, beating China, Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh, according to a study released during this year’s World Economic Forum in Davos.

Of 132 countries whose environments were surveyed, India ranks dead last in the ‘Air (effects on human health)’ ranking. The annual study, the Environmental Performance Index, is conducted and written by environmental research centers at Yale and Columbia universities with assistance from dozens of outside scientists. The study uses satellite data to measure air pollution concentrations.

In another step towards food security, Odisha has been included in the international programme for Roots & Tuber Crops (RTC) initiated by the International Potato Centre (known by its Spanish acronym CIP).

A two-day project planning meeting of the programme was inaugurated by chief secretary Bijay Kumar Patnaik here on Wednesday.

Uzbekistan and South Korea signed a $2.6 billion deal to build a gas-chemical plant in the Central Asian state which their leaders said was “unprecedented” in Uzbek-Korean relations.

“Starting the construction of Ustyrt gas-chemical plant on the basis of the Surgil gas field will be an unprecedented project in the Uzbek-Korean partnership,” President Islam Karimov told reporters in Tashkent after talks with his counterpart Lee Myung-Bak on Tuesday.

A powerful earthquake killed at least 14 people in a heavily populated valley in Central Asia early on Wednesday, emergency officials said.

Almost all the casualties were in Uzbekistan, where officials confirmed 13 deaths.

The magnitude-6.1 temblor centred in Kyrgyzstan hit shortly after midnight in a mountainous area some 35 km away from the eastern Uzbek city of Ferghana, which has a popul

Ambassador of the Republic of Uzbekistan Oybek Arif Usmanov on Wednesday said his country is ready to help Pakistan tackle its worst power crisis by providing electricity at affordable rates.

He said that Pakistan is trying to overcome energy shortages and

The contracts for future wheat imports are currently on hold, as global prices have significantly increased following an export ban in Russia, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.

International prices of wheat are currently hovering around $370 per tonne

Nukus (Uzbekistan): The drying up of the Aral Sea is one of the planet